cry will be heard, "Deep calleth unto deep: all Thy waves and Thy billows have gone over me!” But there will be no after-strain-no joyous anthem of anticipated deliverance-"Yet the Lord will command His loving-kindness!" In vain will the cry ascend, "My heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." But, blessed be God, that cry may ascend nowthat Rock may be fled to as a shelter now. Sinner ! these waves swept over the Rock of Ages, that they might not sweep over you! Sheltered in these crevices, you will be eternally safe. Not one blast of the storm, not one drop of the rainshower of vengeance, can overtake you. When the billows of wrath-the deluge of fire-shall roll over this earth, safe in these everlasting clefts, you may utter the challenge, "Who shall separate me from the love of Christ?" 1 X. Lessons. "When darkness long has veil'd my mind, The folly of my doubts and fears: Thus prone to act so base a part Or harbour one hard thought of Thee!" "Here deep calls to deep. Yet in the midst of those deeps faith is not drowned. You see it lifts its head above water." Bishop Hall. "We perceive the Psalmist full of perplexed thought, and that betwixt strong desires and griefs, and yet in the midst of them intermixing strains of hope with his sad complaints. .. What is the whole thread of our life but a chequered twist, black and white, of delights and dangers interwoven? And the happiest passing of it is, constantly to enjoy and to observe the experiences of God's goodness, and to praise Him for them.”—Archbishop Leighton, 1649. "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts: all the waves and thy billows are gone over me. Bet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life."-Verses 7, 8. X. LESSONS. IN the previous chapter we spoke of the two verses which form the turning-point in the Psalm,— the climax of the conflict therein so strikingly described between belief and unbelief. We referred to the boldness and expressiveness of the figure: the troubles of the believer, like the billows of the ocean calling on one another to unite their strength that they might effect his overthrow, but faith rising triumphant above them all. At times, when all human comfort gives way, God himself appears. "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters."* He not only "commands His loving-kindness in the daytime," but "in THE NIGHT His song is with us.” Our heavenly Parent comes in earth's darkest, most tempestuous hours, sits by our side, sings His nightsong-His own lullaby-" PEACE, BE STILL!" giveth He His beloved sleep!" + God's "songs" *Psalm xxix. 3. Psalm cxxvii. 2. "So " sound always sweetest "by night"-the deep, dark night of affliction. The nightingale's notes are nothing by day-they would be lost in the chorus of other birds; but when these have retired to their nests, she prolongs her tuneful descant, and serenades, with her warblings, the silent earth. The world can only give its song by day. It can speak only in the sunshine of prosperity. But "God our Maker giveth songs in the night !"* His promises, like the nightingale, sound most joyously, and, like the glow-worm, shine most brightly, in the dark! Let us pause ere proceeding with the sequel of the Psalm, and ponder the great lesson to be derived from this experience of David. It is, to TRUST GOD in the darkest, gloomiest night of earthly trial! To wait His own time, and to say, when the billows are highest, "Yet the Lord will". This is one great end and design of trial, to exercise the grace of patience. There is nothing God loves better than a waiting soul. "The Lord is good to them that wait for Him." + "I waited *Job xxxv. 10. + Lam iii. 45. |